The legacy of Andre Nikolaievitch Mandelstam (1869-1949) and the early history of human rights

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700739-07002003

With the exception of a few academic articles written in the past decade, the legacy and significance of Andre N. Mandelstam's works remain unexplored. An analysis of his magnanimous book, Le Sort de L'Empire Ottoman (1917), La Societe des Nations et Les Puissances devant le problem armenien (1926) and Der internationale Schutz der Menschenrechte und die New Yorker Erklarung des Instituts fur Volkerrecht (1931) could lead to a deeper understanding of the development of human rights in the interwar era, the need for international law and intervention with regard to the atrocities against Ottoman Armenians, the entanglements and discussions around the move from minority protection to human rights, and the reasons behind the silences regarding Mandelstam's legacy in the five decades from the 1940s to the late 1990s. An exploration of Mandelstam's works is particularly necessary in the Turkish context.